Watch Over You
by Augment Perception
Summary: No matter how much she hates it, Tatsuki knows that sometimes, all you can do is watch.


Watch Over You

Tatsuki gets a front-row seat to watch her friends become warriors. It's frightening, to be honest, because she doesn't know exactly what she's seeing until she's in chest-deep and not about to wade out for the world.

It starts with Ichigo. She notices him changing because she hasn't been his friend since they were little brats on opposite ends of the dojo mat to miss when he goes a little weirder than normal (She's met his family. Weird with the Kurosaki's tends to be relative). So when he starts hanging out with the mysterious transfer student and always managing to appear when things get strange, she sits up and starts to look closer.

Things get stranger from there, and then summer break happens. She's not sure what exactly happens, but when her friends walk through the door that fall semester, it's obvious something has changed. Ichigo walks in, Sado at his back like a bodyguard, and Orihime greets him cheerily, without a hint of the shy fear she had before break. Some days Tatsuki notices Ichigo give Ishida Uryū a nod, and every so often Ishida will nod back.

And that's another thing. She's really not sure when their group picked up a stray, but Ishida fits in so well it's almost scary. She keeps him at arm's length until she sees him stare down a rowdy group of jocks whistling at Orihime and not stop until they back off, shooting wide-eyed glances at him over their shoulders. The whole thing takes less than two minutes. Tatsuki is reluctantly impressed.

So Ishida joins their group of misfits and lunch is noisy and insane like it always is. It should feel peaceful.

It doesn't.

It takes her two solid weeks to realize Rukia is gone. Tatsuki never gets a straight answer about where exactly it is she went.

More strange behavior catches her eye: the way Orihime leans into Ichigo's words like a flower toward the sun. Sado, quiet as always but looming over their group protectively. Ishida, sitting precisely far enough away to not _technically_ be a part of the group, but always close enough to react if needed. Keigo laughing a little too loudly to break the odd, stiff silences that fall without warning and end just as quickly, and Mizuiro eyeing them all over the top of his phone like he thinks he can figure out this strange new tension if he just looks hard enough. And Ichigo, who watches them like he thinks they'll disappear if he looks away. It's unsettling, and some days it seems like they are all sitting in the calm before a storm, just waiting for it to break.

Tatsuki has never been one for sitting still and waiting- she's not sure if she influenced Ichigo in this, or if it was the other way around, but neither of them can stand doing nothing when something is going down- but there is nothing to do. No one to fight or threaten or cajole. No rhyme or reason to the strange behavior. It grates. So she does the only thing she can and watches some more.

What she finds is possibly even more disturbing than the strange tension in the air. Tatsuki watches Ichigo as he startles, hand flying to his bag where the ugly skull badge hangs. Sometimes, instead of the badge, his hand goes to just over his shoulder. Like pulling out a weapon, she thinks. Then she thinks about the implications of that and isn't so sure she shouldn't be going to an adult. This is more than just some idiot thugs who refuse to learn when they're outclassed. This is dangerous. But Ichigo is far from stupid, whatever the teachers may think, and if he's not asking for help then there is probably a good reason.

Tatsuki watches Ichigo's shadow instead. Sado, who seems to have taken on a self-imposed role as Ichigo's bodyguard- and that's another thought she doesn't want to follow to its end- and follows him like a silent guardian. She watches him in class, absently clenching and unclenching his giant fists and staring at them like he's never seen them before. When Ichigo startles, Sado brings up a clenched fist out of pure reflex before he seems to register that Ichigo is settled again.

Ishida is harder to pin down- she's only really gotten to know him for a short time and he is intensely private. He fiddles with a delicate charm bracelet on his wrist with pale pianist fingers and seems to stare at the sky like it will open up at any moment. When he catches her staring, he pulls his sleeve down over the bracelet and watches her till she looks away.

Orihime is the most frightening. Not because she's more obvious about it- she's actually the hardest to tell with- but because this strange _whatever it is_ has spread to her as well. Most of the time she seems to be perfectly fine- air-headed and cheerful with a spine of steel. But Tatsuki catches her running careful fingers over her hair clips and staring out the window with determination burning in her eyes. When Tatsuki calls to her, Orihime's hands go flying to her temples- no, to her clips- before her eyes find Tatsuki and she smiles wide, hands dropping to her sides as she bounces out of her seat.

The four of them- Orihime, Ichigo, Sado, and Ishida- start walking in patterns, and Tatsuki thinks if she knew anything about military training, she would recognize those patterns. Ichigo in front, Sado a step behind him and to the left, with Orihime behind them both and Ishida at the rear. A pattern, signifying what she has no idea. But she remembers Ichigo reaching for a weapon from his back and Sado's clenched fist and thinks, _frontline fighters go at the front_.

Keigo and Mizuiro notice some of this as well, she knows, and she watches as they purposefully cause innocent chaos, drawing increasingly reluctant smiles from their exhausted friends. She comes so close to cornering Ichigo and demanding answers when she sees the way he sets his shoulders, like the weight of the world is on them but he won't shrug it off for anything. She knows him, knows he has a tendency to carry everything himself (and she loves the Kurosaki family, but there are some things she will never forgive Isshin for and teaching his son he has to carry everything on his own is one of them) and she aches that she cannot carry this for him.

Eventually though, things come to a head. Tatsuki finally pushes for answers and when Ichigo tries to push them away, she, Keigo, and Mizuiro throw subtlety to the wind and follow him. They get the answers they wanted, though she's questioning why she wanted them in the first place, and before it has truly processed a madman is chasing them through a Karakura that is either dead or asleep (she's hoping desperately for the latter) and Keigo tries to tell them to leave him and then Ichigo is there and _oh_. She suddenly understands Orihime leaning into Ichigo unconsciously because this Ichigo is like the sun. He is bright and warm and _safe_ in the madness. And then he's gone again, taking Aizen with him and it's quiet except for the woman with a chest reminiscent of Orihime's sobbing over a dead man with silver hair and startlingly blue eyes.

Things are nowhere near settled. Ichigo is still fighting in the distance, still strangely older and holding some terrible knowledge in his eyes. Tatsuki has no idea where Sado, Orihime, and Ishida are, and there are vaguely familiar people appearing left and right carrying swords and wearing the same traditional black clothing as Ichigo and carrying wounded friends. But something settles in her chest as she looks around and realizes that _this_ is what her friends were hiding. And now that she knows, she can do more than just watch. She can gather her people close and understand when they flinch and go for weapons, and she can finally _do_ something about it.

As she looks around the rubble of Karakura, she thinks she wouldn't trade this knowledge for the world.

* * *

Many thanks to my beta RedDawn22 for helping me with my first ever fanfic.

Reviews are an author's bread and butter. Feel free to feed the author.


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